What happened in the third inning of a 4-3 win over the NL Central’s cellar-renting Reds at Petco Park was just one inning on a sunny Sunday in April. Sometimes, though, a single frame can feel like so much more.

The four runs, courtesy of an Austin Hedges homer and four consecutive two-out hits, planted a dagger in a six-game losing streak to stem the win-loss hemorrhaging. The party at home plate curb-stomped a demoralizing stretch of 55 innings without a lead.

No one would blame hitting coach Johnny Washington for shot-gunning one of those $13 Petco beers in the dugout like a trust-fund kid on spring break.

“It’s one of those things. It takes one inning. It takes one swing,” said left fielder Wil Myers, whose two-run double in the inning was his third extra-base hit in his last four games. “You’re always closer than you think.”

Toss out all the sports clichés about it only being one game. This was more than that. When Kirby Yates buttoned down his tied-for-baseball-best 10th save, the Padres collectively exhaled.

Instead of an ugly seven-game losing streak entering the series with Seattle, the surprise of the season with the game’s best record unpacking bats Tuesday at Petco, it all became a giant reprieve from nagging questions and lingering early-season doubts.

Instead of being sub-.500 for the first time this season, the Padres remain a guaranteed winner for another 48 hours. This meant loud music booming in the postgame clubhouse, not crickets.

That’s one important inning.

“No doubt, it’s been a tough week for us,” manager Andy Green said. “A bunch of guys that haven’t quite found their offensive stride. … Overall, whenever we can get Kirby in the game, it’s a good day.”

The win, Joey Lucchesi’s to tuck into his locker as a recharging off day arrived. In many ways, it also felt like it belonged to Chris Paddack, Matt Strahm and Eric Lauer. The youthful, surprisingly sturdy starting core averaged a sterling 1.75 earned runs across the last four games.

All but Lucchesi walked off without wins because of the Padres’ mummified lumber and paralyzing offensive slumber.

Then, came the third inning of game No. 23 among 162.

Hedges redirected a 92 mph fastball from Tyler Mahle 382 feet to left field, tying the game at 1. Worth noting, the fact that it was the defense-first catcher’s third homer of the season. Last season, he didn’t log No. 3 until July 5.

Then came five straight hits, first by Fernando Tatis Jr. who was then caught stealing. Two outs did not doom an inning this time, however. It fueled a momentary rebirth, starting with Manny Margot’s bloop single. After Manny Machado singled, Myers hammered his game-changer that landed just inches from being a home run of his own.

As Eric Hosmer piled on with a run-scoring double, it not only felt significant — it later proved uncomfortably critical.

When Eugenio Suarez dented the Western Metal Supply Co. building with a full-count pitch from Craig Stammen in the seventh, cutting it to 4-3, every ounce of that earlier offensive flash was needed.

In the clubhouse before the game, veteran Ian Kinsler weighed how to address a team wallowing in collective offensive woe. As he did, he unwittingly penned that day’s looming script.

“Chemistry, pressing, hitting is contagious, all those things are true,” he said. “We’re humans. We’re not computers. You can’t tell me that a guy’s heart rate doesn’t go up or he doesn’t feel a big situation. Pressing is definitely a part of sports.

“Winning cures everything. We win today, go into an off day and everything completely changes. It happens quick. We saw it go the other way quickly and it can go back the other way just as quickly.”

Nothing would have changed without one 23-pitch offensive outburst.

“It was nice today to have that big inning,” Myers said. “We hadn’t had one of those in a while.”

As questions about big-league bats continued to swirl early in the game, news spread that Padres prospects Ty France and Josh Naylor hit back-to-back home runs twice for Triple-A El Paso on Sunday – flaming offensive whispers all the more.

Then, Hedges. Then, Myers. Then, Hosmer. When the scoring dust settled, it revealed a pivotal reset button – pieced together one bat at a time.

“For us just to string some hits together and not be completely reliant on a home run … it’s good for us to score some runs that way,” Green said.

At least 1,251 innings remain in the Padres’ season. To think just one in April could feel memorable might seem silly to some.